Overall, a slim majority (52% agreed/48% disagreed) agree (strongly and somewhat combined) with President Trump's notion that he is the "law and order" president. As for intensity, among survey respondents, a plurality (34%) strongly disagreed, while 30% strongly agreed.
Among age groups surveyed, majorities of likely voters aged 30-49 (57% agreed/43% disagreed) and voters aged 65+ (52% agreed/48% disagreed) agreed that Trump is the "law and order" president, while majorities of younger voters aged 18-29 (45% agreed/55% disagreed) and aged 50-64 believed the opposite (49% agreed/51% disagreed).
When it came to the education of survey respondents, interestingly, college educated voters (56% agreed/44% disagreed) agreed more than non-college educated voters (48% agreed/53% disagreed) with Trump's statement. This has been a trend as of late, with the president appealing more to college educated voters than non-college educated voter-the latter were a big part of his winning coalition in 2016. Men, not surprisingly, agreed (59% agreed/41% disagreed) much more than women (44% agreed/56% disagreed) that Trump is the "law and order" president.
Only a quarter of Democrats agreed, while three quarters disagreed with the president. An overwhelming majority of Republicans felt Trump is the "law and order" president (87% agreed/13% disagreed), while Independents (43% agreed/57% disagreed) tended to feel that Trump wasn't the "law and order" president.
When it came to ethnicity, Hispanics (50% agreed/50% disagreed) were more likely to agree that Trump was the "law and order" president, compared to few African Americans voters (27% agreed/73% disagreed).
Where residents live also played a factor in their assessment of Trump's law and order stance; voters in the suburbs (41% agreed/59% disagreed) were less likely to agree that Trump was the "law and order" president compared to majorities of voters living large cities (54% agreed/46% disagreed), small cities (58% agreed/42% disagreed) and voters living in rural areas (57% agreed/43% disagreed).
President Trump performed much better with swing voters- voted for Obama in 2012 and then in turn voted for Trump in 2016 (83% agreed/17% disagreed) and consumers such as weekly Walmart (68% agreed/33% disagreed) and weekly Amazon shoppers (62% agreed/38% disagreed).
Conclusion
Many people have taken their anger and frustration to the streets to protest police brutality and racism. Cities across the nation have witnessed mostly peaceful protests, but some have turned violent, and while some of these frustrations are justified, there have been many instances of chaos that are not.
While many have slammed the use of federal troops in cities like Portland and Chicago by the DOJ, Trump's message that he is the "law order" president coupled with violence in cities and suburbs across the nation could have the effect of helping Trump win back voters, if he is seen as a stabilizing presence, and if the violence and protests continue to spill out of control. Some voters may not feel safe leaving their homes, which could shift suburban voters back into Trump's column and increase his lead with swing voters.
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Zogby Analytics Poll Methodology
US Likely Voters
7/21/20 - 7/23/20
Zogby Analytics conducted an online survey of 1516 likely voters in the US.
Using internal and trusted interactive partner resources, thousands of adults were randomly invited to participate in this interactive survey. Each invitation is password coded and secure so that one respondent can only access the survey one time.
Using information based on census data, voter registration figures, CIA fact books and exit polls, we use complex weighting techniques to best represent the demographics of the population being surveyed. Weighted variables may include age, race, gender, region, party, education, and religion. The party breakdown for this survey is as follows: 36% Democrat, 34% Republican and 30% Independent/unaffiliated.
Based on a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error for 1516 is +/- 2.5 percentage points. This means that all other things being equal, the identical survey repeated will have results within the margin of error 95 times out of 100.
Subsets of the data have a larger margin of error than the whole data set. As a rule we do not rely on the validity of very small subsets of the data especially sets smaller than 50-75 respondents. At that subset we can make estimations based on the data, but in these cases the data is more qualitative than quantitative.
Additional factors can create error, such as question wording and question order.
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About Zogby Analytics:
Zogby Analytics is respected nationally and internationally for its opinion research capabilities. Since 1984, Zogby has empowered clients with powerful information and knowledge critical for making informed strategic decisions.
The firm conducts multi-phased opinion research engagements for banking and financial services institutions, insurance companies, hospitals and medical centers, retailers and developers, religious institutions, cultural organizations, colleges and universities, IT companies and Federal agencies. Zogby's dedication and commitment to excellence and accuracy are reflected in its state-of-the-art opinion research capabilities and objective analysis and consultation.